Mosley takes home another gold

KOROR, Palau—Nina Mosley closed out her campaign in the pool with style Friday night, winning her second gold medal in the 2005 Palau South Pacific Mini Games.

After posting the top time of 28.82 seconds in the preliminaries of the women’s 50m Freestyle earlier in the day, the 16-year-old Marianas Baptist Academy student dove back into the pool and took care of business as she swam ahead of New Caledonia’s Esther Meallet and Ines Horngren to take top honors.

Mosley made her home islands proud once more, allowing the CNMI anthem to be played for the second time this past week after stealing the show with a time of 28.09 seconds in the finals. Meallet followed in 28.3 seconds and Horngren took bronze in 28.91 seconds.

Mosley then took home her second medal of the evening courtesy of a 2:35.8 performance in the 200m Backstroke, which was good enough for a bronze. Teammate Myana Welch also competed in the event and placed a respectable fifth, clocking in at 2:39.8.

For her part, 13-year-old Amanda Johnson added another silver medal to the CNMI’s haul, finishing the 200m Butterfly in 2:41.5 seconds, only behind New Caledonia’s Nyitrue Simon, who clocked in at 2:31.8.

The CNMI swim team capped its run with another silver as Michael Camacho, Rezne Wong, David Palacios, and Juan Camacho delivered another silver medal in the 400m Medley Relay.

Meanwhile, Mosley and Melissa Coleman, who will compete in triathlon this coming week, added two more medals, with Mosley working for silver and Coleman a bronze in yesterday’s 5K Open Water Swim in the waters of Neco Bay.

Mosley won the silver after completing the two-lap affair in 1:16:33.04, while Coleman was not too far back and finished in 1:19:39.89. Johnson also swam the event and placed fourth in 1:20:32.05, while Nicole Calvo placed ninth in 1:21:10.03. Esther Meallet of New Caledonia took gold in 1:10:13.30.

Meallet’s compatriot Olivier Saminadin took gold in the men’s category in 1:08:26.00, while teammates Benoit Riviere and Thomas Chacun grabbed silver and bronze in 1:08:33.00 and 1:09:04.00.

The CNMI’s Juan Camacho placed fourth in 1:20:28.00, while Rezne Wong and Michael Camacho were right behind in 1:20:32.00 and 1:20:35.99.

The CNMI table tennis team of Budhi Gurung, Chen Linying, Su Yong Dong, and coach Steve Lim, meanwhile, managed to take home the bronze in the team competition Friday night.

CNMI ping-pong had their shiniest moment against Solomon Islands, whose players were swept by the NMI representatives, 9-0. The NMI won 27 of the 34 games played, with Chen, Gurung, and Su taking care of business, rebounding from a 9-0 shutout suffered in the hands of Guam earlier.

The team also swept Marshalls, 9-0, allowing their opponents to take just five games, and took two of the nine games against New Caledonia in their opening bout and taking Fiji to the limit before falling, 5-4.

Men’s softball beats FSM, loses to Palau

The CNMI men’s fast pitch softball team bounced back and scored an 8-3 victory over the Federated States of Micronesia Friday night.

Team CNMI went right to work, with John Reyes leading off by drawing a base on balls, and later scoring on an error. Slugger Mel Sakisat and Tony Camacho also connected for singles, and were both brought home courtesy of a double connection by Roy Celis, who later scored the fourth run of the inning on another costly error by the FSM defensive unit, 4-0.

Celis continued to feel it from the batters box, and with one out in the top of the third inning, the multi-sport athlete stepped up to the plate and cracked the CNMI’s second home run of the Mini Games to give his team a 5-0 lead.

The FSM finally had a response in the bottom of the fourth when Mikal Loyola reached on an error and raced home on a sharp single by Steve Mendiola.

FSM, however, was not allowed to cross home plate the rest of the game and the CNMI upped its lead to 6-0 in the fifth before closing out the victory. Camacho singled to start the inning, took second on a single by Celis, stole third, and completed his journey around the diamond on a fielders’ choice by J.R. Suel.

Celis led the NMI, going 3-for-4 with two runs, a double, a home run, and two runs batted in while Camacho had two hits and two runs.

Mikal led FSM with a hit and a run while Wayne Mendiola connected for two singles.

The team was then scheduled to battle Palau at 2am early Saturday morning, however, the bout was rescheduled due to heavy rainfall.

The teams finally clashed before noon, with Palau fighting off an early deficit and taking advantage of an early exit by CNMI hurler Tony Satur to win, 8-3, in another rain-shortened game.

CNMI got off to a hot start, with John Reyes leading off with a base on balls and Ben Duenas following with a hard hit single, setting the stage for veteran slugger Mel Sakisat, who came through and busted out the whopping stick for a two-run triple. Sakisat was quickly brought home as clean up batter Tony Camacho knocked a sacrifice fly to deep centerfield to enable Sakisat to tag up and race home, 3-0.

CNMI padded its lead with another run in the top of the third inning as Sakisat bruised the ball again, connecting for a double before rounding third and scoring on a triple by Roy Celis.

Palau managed to break out of their scoreless slump in the bottom half of the inning to cut the deficit to 1-3.

The team caught a break when Satur had to be replaced after pulling a muscle. The veteran hurler was cruising before retiring, striking out five batters in just three innings, including retiring the side by way of strikes in the second inning.

Palau knotted the game in the bottom of the fifth with two runs, and unleashed their fury with five runs in the sixth before officials called the game off due to rain.

Sakisat was hot all night, going 3-for-3 with two runs, two runs batted in, a double, and a triple while Camacho and Celis each had a hit and an RBI.

The women’s fast pitch crew also experienced another setback, losing to the FSM,5-3, Friday night.

CNMI went up 1-0 in the first inning as Mer Actuoka singled and scored, and upped their lead to 3-0 with two more runs in the third inning. Actuoka singled again and scored on a while Felicia Brel singled and scored on a fielder’s choice hit by Vanessa Mobel.

FSM, however, retaliated and scored four runs in the bottom half of the inning to take control. They added another run in the fifth inning before rain interrupted the game.

Both softball teams were scheduled to take the field yesterday afternoon, however, their scheduled games were delayed due to heavy rainfall. CNMI women were to battle FSM for a shot at the gold medal game, while the men’s were to battle Solomon Islands in a regular round bout.

Also, the CNMI beach volleyball teams were dealt losses Saturday, with Nan Inthraluk and Don Dunlop dropping in straight sets to Guam 20-22 and 15-21 and Melissa Halaby and Milli Saiki falling to Solomon Islands 4-21 and 13-21.

CNMI was well represented in athletics Friday night as Darrel Roligat teamed up with baseball players Ben Jones, Tyrone Omar, and Luis Iguel to place fifth in the 4X100m Relay, clocking in at 45.25 seconds. Papua New Guinea took gold in 41.92 seconds, Fiji silver in 41.97, and FSM bronze in 42.83.

Male netters advance in doubles
In tennis, the one-two punch of Jeff Race and Tim Quan got past their first test in the men’s doubles, cruising to a 4-0, 4-0 victory over FSM’s Dion Neth and Simaolehsi yesterday morning.

The two, however, were not as fortunate in their singles draw Saturday, with Race falling to Solomon Islands’ Michael Leong 6-0, 6-0 and Quan to Juan Langton 6-2, 4-6, 6-3.

Female netter Kana Aikawa also bowed out of the singles competition after dropping a tough three-setter to New Caledonia’s Dorianne Brehe. The two began their match at 9am Saturday, however, they had to wait until yesterday for a winner to be determined.

Brehe won the first set, 6-4, but Aikawa bounced back and gave the New Caledonia player a run for her money, taking the second set 7-6. The two were knotted at 1-1 when action was postponed.

After several rain delays yesterday morning, Brehe and Aikawa got back onto the court, with Brehe taking advantage of a slow start by Aikawa and winning the next four points for a comfortable 5-1 lead.

The comfort zone soon evaporated as Aikawa fought back, winning the next three games—including surviving a match point and cut the deficit to 4-5.

Aikawa was up 40-30, but an unforced error and three double faults enabled Brehe to advance.

Aikawa still has a shot at a medal as she teams up with Quan in the mixed doubles.

Baseball hit by rain again

CNMI baseball players were again delayed from taking the field, with their bout against the FSM pushed back. The two were scheduled to play at 7pm. As of press time, undefeated teams Guam and Palau were battling in the fourth inning, with Guam up 4-1.

In other news, CNMI triathlon members Natasha Good, Stephan Samoyloff, Ketson “Jack” Kabiriel, and Dirk Sharer arrived Friday night and are prepping for their race this Wednesday. The crew worked on swimming Saturday at Neco Bay and biked the competition course yesterday. The team also comprises of Mini Games medalist Melissa Coleman and Anneka Sakovich, who was scheduled to arrive last night.